49ers Trade Kentwan Balmer

The San Francisco 49ers brought the incredibly stupid Kentwan Balmer saga to end an end early Monday morning. Balmer was traded to the Seattle Seahawks for a sixth-round draft pick, Matt Barrows reports for the Sacramento Bee.

Balmer had gone AWOL from 49ers training camp, upset that his lousy play was costing him a chance at the starting defensive end position.

It's not particularly good value to trade a first-round draft pick for a sixth-round draft pick. Balmer was the 49ers' first-round draft pick in 2008, and this will only be his third season.

But at this point, the 49ers were so exasperated with his antics that they would have taken a 1.5-ounce bag of Lay's potato chips for Balmer's contract. It's surprising they somehow talked Seattle up from a seventh-rounder.

In Seattle, Balmer will play under coach Pete Carroll and the personnel executive who drafted him, former 49ers' GM Scot McCloughan.

Joe Kukura is a freelance writer who is not exactly fearing the wrath of Balmer when the 49ers and Seahawks face off in the first game of the regular season.

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